Day 3 of the WSOP Main Event concluded with 1,476 players still left with chip stacks, of which 78 hail from the UK. The day ended just 15 players short of the prize money, the minimum payout being $15,000, while the winner will collect $10m.
When the day began 3,453 players were left in contention, including 149 from the UK, more than half of whom survived until play was suspended at the end of level 15. While only 42.7% of the overall field made it through, 52.3% of British players did, outperforming the population on the day.
Bagley Bags Biggest Brit Stack
The highest placed player from the UK at the end of Day 3 is Brandon Harris, whose 1,616,000 chip stack is the seventh largest of the remaining field. James Bagley posted the largest stack of the British players, with 1,330,000. It was initially thought that Brandon Harris had bagged the biggest stack, but according to his instagram status, it seems he actually ended the day on 616,000. What looks like a 1 in front of the 616k is actually a non-numerical symbol, technically known as a squiggle.
Oliver Braddock with 1,107,000 is the only other Brit to have made it over the 1m mark, but Will Kassouf on 957,000 and Jamie O’Connor on 947,000 are not far from making it to seven figures.
UK players now represent 5.2% of the remaining field, increasing slightly from 4.3% at the start of Day 3. Only one player, Jason Wong is currently in a position outside the money, in 1,465th, with just 1,461 getting paid, but he still has a great chance to get a payday, as the bubble will burst soon after play resumes. With a bit of luck, all 78 remaining UK players will make it over the line and into the money!
Kassouf on TV Table
Will Kassouf returned with the 3rd biggest stack of the British contingent and soon moved north, at one point possessing the 5th biggest stack in the entire field. He put on the usual show for the fans and the haters (he doesn’t care which camp you belong to), telling the table during one hand:
“Some people call me the Donald Trump of poker you know, I’m controversial, polarising and chaotic. But I speak my mind and I get shit done. That’s the bottom line.“
He inevitably hit the flush on the river, carried on chatting, made his bet while stating another of his catchphrases, “If you’ve got it, you’ve got it,” …and got paid off.
Half way through the day, Will’s table became the secondary feature TV table and for short stints at a time, the coverage switched to show a few hands he was involved with. Despite trying not to, commentator Joe Stapleton couldn’t stop himself letting a few chuckles out, especially when Kassouf started inviting his tablemates to join him at the steakhouse during the dinner break. Not sure he got any takers for that.
Kassouf’s stack did not grow in a linear fashion, he was up to nearly 800k, down to under 500k, but ended the session on a high, with just under 1m chips, well placed to make another deep run. How far will he go this time?
Bracelet Holders Bust Out
Despite it being a good day overall for the Britpack, almost half of the UK’s poker warriors vacated the battleground on Day 3, taking nothing but memories with them to the rail. Amongst the first to take official leave of absence was Harry Lodge. He was one of six former UK bracelet winners to be eliminated, in company with Alex Lindop, Patrick Leonard, Chris Moorman, Jack Sinclair and Roberto Romanello.
There are still four UK bracelet winners left in the tournament, Carl Shaw on 551,000, Jamie Walden on 411,00, Stephen Chidwick on 395,000 and Liv Boeree on 320,000.
Tower Toppled
Sadly Day 3 was the end of the Main Event journey for Phil “The Tower” Heald. The GUKPT commentator had made it to the third day with 54,000 chips, but busted during the second level of the day. He twice had aces, but found no customers on either occasion. Down to 7 big blinds, he got it in with K♥J♥ but the big blind had AK and that was that.
Despite exiting, Phil described it as a fantastic experience. He was understandably a little bit upset after busting, but in his own words, “that’s poker.”
Chipped Up
The average stack of those left in the Main Event is now 395k, and there are many Brits who have in excess of that amount. Brandon Sheils is one of the players to have significantly risen up the leaderboard on Day 3, finishing with 736,000, inside the top 200 on the day.
Kevin Williams (646,000) and Andrew Wilson (629,000) ended the day with above average stacks as did Andrew Hedley, a little further back on 489,000. Ayr United chairman Fraser McIntyre is also well placed with 473,000.
Chipping Away
Those with stacks just above the 395k average include Josh Boulton, who had taken the second biggest stack of the UK players into the day. He began with 446,000 and after ten hours of play his stack hadn’t changed much, dipping slightly to 437,000.
Joe Hindry, the UK’s chip leader when play began, also hovered close to the stack he started with, ending on 400,000. He is just ahead of Stephen Chidwick, who returned with 144,000, but now has exactly the average, with 395,000.
Chips are Down
James Atkin started the day with 323,000, but closed out the session with under half the average, on 186,000. Rohit Mariwalla also moved backwards during the day, bagging 169,000, as did Nick Eastwood, who is down to 120,000.
Beer Poker Tour London champion Dan Spataru is still in, but also slipped backwards on Day 3, ending on 103,000, as did high roller Mathew Frankland, who bagged 95,000.
At the bottom of the Britpack leaderboard, several players are on tournament life support and will need to dodge the bubble when play resumes for Day 4. Christopher O’Donnell (43,000), Stephen Kirkland (42,000), Sachin Joshi (40,000) and Jason Wong (32,000) are those who will be nervously retaking their seats on Wednesday.
Chipped Out
Paul Newey, Luke Porter, Thomas MacDonald, Kevin Allen, Cassandra Yong and Sam Acheampong all saw their tournament lives fizzle out during the first two levels of the day.
Jason Shellum, Waheed Ashraf, Andrew Hulme and Mohammad Iqbal also failed to make it to the half-way point of the day.
Grosvenor Poker pro Jamie Nixon exited later in the day as did Matt Davenport and Felix McPeake
2025 WSOP Main Event Day 2d UK Survivors
| Position | Player | |
|---|---|---|
| 8 |  Brandon Harris | 1,616,000 |
| 23 | James Bagley | 1,330,000 |
| 55 | Oliver Braddock | 1,107,000 |
| 87 | Will Kassouf | 957,000 |
| 91 | Jamie O’Connor | 947,000 |
| 120 | Simon Burns | 868,000 |
| 187 | Laith Edris | 742,000 |
| 193 | Brandon Sheils | 736,000 |
| 204 | Mitchell Hynam | 721,000 |
| 205 | Samuel Wilkinson | 719,000 |
| 209 | Guy Leathley | 712,000 |
| 265 | Dean Lyall | 656,000 |
| 275 | Kevin Williams | 646,000 |
| 287 | Andrew Wilson | 629,000 |
| 350 | Samuel Darkin | 566,000 |
| 352 | Gareth Devereux | 564,000 |
| 365 | Carl Shaw | 551,000 |
| 441 | Andrew Hedley | 489,000 |
| 457 | Fraser Macintyre | 473,000 |
| 476 | Mark Rubbathan | 462,000 |
| 482 | Paul Ephremsen | 452,000 |
| 501 | Tom Middleton | 442,000 |
| 504 | Daniel Carney | 440,000 |
| 508 | Scott Margereson | 439,000 |
| 513 | Joshua Boulton | 437,000 |
| 554 | Jamie Walden | 411,000 |
| 573 | James O’Sullivan | 401,000 |
| 574 | Joe Hindry | 400,000 |
| 582 | William Gibbons | 395,000 |
| 584 | Stephen Chidwick | 395,000 |
| 630 | Jamie Kingston | 362,000 |
| 640 | Minnes Scott | 360,000 |
| 646 | Seun Oluwole | 356,000 |
| 664 | Daniel James | 347,000 |
| 722 | Liv Boeree | 320,000 |
| 733 | Oystein Kristoffersen | 312,000 |
| 746 | Oliver Bithell | 305,000 |
| 763 | Jamie Dale | 300,000 |
| 770 | Grant Gardner | 296,000 |
| 779 | Richard Sheils | 289,000 |
| 799 | Matthew Belcher | 281,000 |
| 805 | Rehman Kassam | 277,000 |
| 816 | Nikolay Ponomarev | 273,000 |
| 834 | Matthew Hunt | 266,000 |
| 848 | Benjamin Jackson | 257,000 |
| 854 | Andrew Teng | 254,000 |
| 855 | Niall Costigan | 254,000 |
| 870 | Andrew Hawksby | 249,000 |
| 876 | Paul Sokoloff | 247,000 |
| 881 | Martins Adeniya | 245,000 |
| 892 | Christopher Wood | 240,000 |
| 913 | Benjamin Winsor | 233,000 |
| 926 | James Mackenzie | 229,000 |
| 1001 | Giorgos Onisiforou | 201,000 |
| 1018 | Fahir Han | 197,000 |
| 1056 | James Atkin | 186,000 |
| 1100 | Boutros Awad | 172,000 |
| 1107 | Rohit Mariwalla | 169,000 |
| 1179 | Jack Hardcastle | 149,000 |
| 1190 | Alex Whitenstall | 145,000 |
| 1247 | Jacob Stone | 128,000 |
| 1254 | Christopher Scholes | 124,000 |
| 1259 | Jamie Harding | 122,000 |
| 1269 | Nick Eastwood | 120,000 |
| 1283 | Samuel Goodman | 115,000 |
| 1306 | Nicholas Ramsey | 108,000 |
| 1323 | Dan Spataru | 103,000 |
| 1346 | Evan Hu | 96,000 |
| 1348 | Mathew Frankland | 95,000 |
| 1360 | Christopher Whitaker | 91,000 |
| 1405 | James Rann | 73,000 |
| 1408 | Henry Fewster | 71,000 |
| 1423 | Darius Samual | 65,000 |
| 1427 | Steven Alper | 64,000 |
| 1450 | Christopher O’Donnell | 43,000 |
| 1452 | Stephen Kurland | 42,000 |
| 1454 | Sachin Joshi | 40,000 |
| 1464 | Jason Wong | 32,000 |
Photos courtesy of PokerNews and WSOP
